'Flesh' by David Szalay

Join us to discuss this 2025 Longlister for the Booker Prize.

A propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unravelled by a series of events beyond his grasp.

Fifteen-year-old István lives with his mother in a quiet apartment complex in Hungary. New to the town and shy, he is unfamiliar with the social rituals at school and soon becomes isolated, with his neighbour – a married woman close to his mother’s age – as his only companion. Their encounters shift into a clandestine relationship that István barely understands, and his life soon spirals out of control.

Spare and penetrating, Flesh asks profound questions about what drives a life: what makes it worth living, and what breaks it.

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